barrier
UK/ˈbæɹi.ə/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈbaɹɪjə/
barrier noun: a structure that bars passage.
Noun
barrier (plural barriers)
- A structure that bars passage.
- The bus went through a railway barrier and was hit by a train.
- The bomber had passed through one checkpoint before blowing himself up at a second barrier.
- An obstacle or impediment.
- Even a small fee can be a barrier for some students.
- If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained- life breaks free, it expands to new territories, and it crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously but,... uh... well, there it is.1993, Jurassic Park, Universal Pictures, →OCLC
- A boundary or limit.
- Few marathon runners break the three-hour time barrier.
- The downside of normalization is that it erects a defensive barrier between the real world and the perceived i.e. normalized world.2025 April 21, Charles Hugh Smith, What's "Normal" in a Hyper-Normalized World?
- A node (in government and binding theory) said to intervene between other nodes A and B if it is a potential governor for B, c-commands B, and does not c-command A.
- A separation between two areas of the body where specialized cells allow the entry of certain substances but prevent the entry of others.
- The lists in a tournament.
- A martial exercise of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Verb
barrier (third-person singular simple present barriers, present participle barriering, simple past and past participle barriered)
- To block or obstruct with a barrier.
- Synonyms:
- bar
Proper noun capitalized: Barrier
Barrier (plural Barriers)
- A surname from French.
barrier meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
barrier in Hindi
- obstacle or impediment
- बाधा bādhā, रुकावट rukāvaṭ
barrier in Tamil
- தடை, வேலி, தடையரண், இடைவேலி, வழிமறிப்பு, தட்டி
barrier in Urdu
- آڑ, حد, ناکہ بندی, رکاوٹ
barrier in Bengali
- বাধা, অন্তরায়, প্রতিবন্ধক, বেড়, আত্মরক্ষামূলক বেড়া, আগল
More languagesFewer languages
- barrier in Malayalam
- മതിൽ matil
- barrier in Kannada
- ಅಡ್ಡಗೋಡೆ, ಬೇಲಿ
- barrier in Punjabi
- ਨਾਕਾ nākā, کندھ kandh
- barrier in Gujarati
- બેરિયરિંગ
- barrier in Odia
- ବ୍ଯ଼ାରିଅରିଂ, ବ୍ଯ଼ାରିଯ଼ରିଂ, ବ୍ଯ଼ାରିଯ଼ରିଙ୍ଗ୍
- barrier in Nepali
- अवरोध, बाधा
- barrier in Arabic
- حَاجِز ḥājiz, عَقَبَة ʕaqaba
- barrier in Indonesian
- palang, pembatas, rintangan, batas
- barrier in Persian
- مانع mâne', سد sadd
- barrier in Vietnamese
- chướng ngại
Examples of barrier in a sentence
- Barriers have been put up to prevent more people (from) entering the stadium.
- The shopkeeper had to roll up the security barrier to open the shop.
- The driver lost control and the car struck the tire barrier.
Synonyms of barrier
Forms of barrier
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | barriers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | barriers |
| present participle | barriering |
| past participle | barriered |
| past | barriered |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Barriers |
Origin of barrier
From Middle English barrer, barrere, barryȝer, from Anglo-Norman barrere (compare French barrière), from barre (“bar”).
Words formed from barrier
- acoustic barrier
- allobarrier
- automatic half-barrier level crossing
- barrier board
- barrier cream
- barrier island
- barrier lake
- barrierless
- barrierlike
- barrier method
- barrier nursing
- barrier reef
- barrier ridge
- barrier rogue
- barrier to entry
- barrier to trade
- barrier troops
- barristor
- biobarrier
- blood-brain barrier
- boom barrier
- color barrier
- Coulomb barrier
- crash barrier
- crowd control barrier
- crush barrier
- cyberbarrier
- death barrier
- diffusion-barrier
- Einstein barrier
- Great Barrier Island
- Great Barrier Reef
- half-barrier
- heat barrier
- hematoencephalic barrier
- ice barrier
- immunobarrier
- Jersey barrier
- language barrier
- light barrier
- memory barrier
- metabarrier
- multibarrier
- nanobarrier
- New Jersey barrier
- noise barrier
- non-tariff barrier
- police barrier
- racial barrier
- Schottky barrier
- security barrier
- sonic barrier
- sound barrier
- species barrier
- subbarrier
- superbarrier
- tariff barrier
- ticket barrier
- tilt barrier
- time barrier
Phrases with barrier
- tire barrier
- toll barrier
- tyre barrier
- barrier lakes
- barrier reefs
- trade barrier
- vapor barrier
- barrier boards
- barrier creams
- barrier rogues
- barrier islands
- barrier methods
3 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with barrier
Questions about barrier
- What does barrier mean?
- Barrier means a structure that bars passage.
- What is barrier in Hindi?
- Barrier in Hindi is बाधा (bādhā), रुकावट (rukāvaṭ). See Barrier meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is barrier?
- Barrier can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce barrier?
- Barrier is pronounced /ˈbæɹi.ə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of barrier?
- The plural of barrier is barriers.
Words near barrier in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: barrier (page history and authors); Barrier (page history and authors); barrier (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); barrier (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); barrier (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); മതിൽ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); barrier (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); کندھ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); barrier (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barrier (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barrier (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-barrier.ogg.
Cite this entry: “barrier.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barrier. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.